I would like to make further progress with my home automation and would now like to focus on location-based automation. (e.g. the eco mode of my heating should be extended by itself when the smartphones of me and my girlfriend have a certain distance to our apartment).
The transmission of the location works quite well with my Iphone both via the ICloud Binding and via OwnTracks.
The Samsung Galaxy S22 FE is a bit more problematic, as OwnTracks regularly stops working here. (Battery optimization is deactivated).
What experiences have you had with Samsung smartphones in this regard and what approach can you recommend for a stable transmission of the location?
If you don’t need the exact location, but only want to know if someone is at home or not, you can also try network binding or o others (eg tr064 with a fritzbox router) to check if a device is connected to local network
I’ve been down this road and gave up. It isn’t that OwnTracks would get shut down but that GPS simply isn’t fast enough nor accurate enough to be all that useful to drive home automations from openHAB. OwnTracks also uses a lot of battery.
So I moved a lot of those types of automations to the phone itself.
To detect presence I use the Android app’s ability to push the name of the connected WiFi to an Item. As soon as my phone connects to the home network it marks it as present.
For larger geofence type automations I use Tasker and the openHAB plug-in to send commands to Items when entering or leaving geofences defined on the phone. Some of the automation is a combo between Tasker and OH. For example, when I get close to the house, Tasker throws up a dialog asking if I want to open the garage door. If I tap “yes” it sends a command to openHAB to open the door.
Tasker could also be configured to report when you enter/exit geofences too so you don’t need to be constantly reporting the current location.
I’m inclined to agree with Rich. I didn’t go as deep into the rabbit hole, but I’ve found that GPS is unreliable for my particular needs. I’d have automations firing when I don’t want them, and not firing when I do. For things like the thermostat, I want 100% certainty that an automation is going to work.
You might want to try Samsung’s Modes and Routines. I’ve started using it with my Z Flip 5, and it’s a huge improvement over the old Routines app. There are way more options, and you can even use it to trigger Tasker (which enables triggering openHAB).
Okay, then I’ll have a look at Tasker as an app for the Samsung Galaxy. If it supports geofencing, it would be perfect.
Do you also have experience with Iphones? Is there a similar app or would you advise me to stick with the ICloud Binding?
The basic app supports basic geofencing with more advanced capabilities in the AutoLocation plugin.
No. Apple does not allow apps access to the system and information from the system in the same ways that Tasker does. There are a few automation apps for iOS but they are quite simplistic and have few capabilities compared to Tasker on Android.
Re iPhones, you can create a virtual switch (or switches) for presence, expose it via the HomeKit binding and have HomeKit turn it on/off when arriving/leaving. It works really well, is simple and no need to worry about 2FA requests.
